Regular leafed brandywine?

[Qweniden]

I was just out looking at all my small tomato plants and I noticed that one of the tomatoes that was labeled "brandywine" yet didn't have potato shaped leaves. Is this possible?

[Frog]

My understanding is that Bradywine is a PL, maybe you have a cross.

[DanishGardener]

Red brandywine is RL (regular leaf)
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Brandywine,_Red

[Qweniden]

Thanks.

Does it taste anything like a PL brandywine?

[jwr6404]

My RL Brandywine was very prolific with medium sized tomatoes that tasted very well. Still have to give the edge to the Brandywine in the taste department.

[travis]

Originally Posted by Qweniden

Thanks.

Does it taste anything like a PL brandywine?

Red Brandywine and Brandywine look, grow and taste differently to me. Both are late season relatively speaking.

[Qweniden]

thank you for the responses

[TZ-OH6]

The chances that Red Brandywine seed are mixed in with pink potatoleaf Brandywine are slim. If you do have a cross it is probable that the fruit will be red simply because of the preponderance of red and yellow skinned varieties out there to cross with it, and red-yellow skin is is dominant to pink-clear skin. The same goes for stray seed...more red varieties out there than anything else.

[nctomatoman]

Since Brandywine and Red Brandywine are entirely unrelated, as TZ said above, a regular leaf seedling in your Brandywine could be: stray seed/mix up, or a cross. Since the way to find crosses in PL varieties with home saved seed is to look for RL seedlings, this is highly possible. That is how I ended up starting the development of Lucky Cross and Little Lucky - by growing out a RL seedling amongst my Brandywine, finding it to be a hybrid, then saving seed from that and doing selections over several years.

[Qweniden]

TZ and nctomatoman,

The nusery where I got my brandywines have two different sections. They have a heirloom section where I got the brandywine and brandywine (Sudduth). They also have a section where they have the Celebrity, Ace and Big Boy type tomatoes. More mainstream stuff. That section had a Brandywine too so I thought Id get one for comparison purposes. After I planted them I noticed that the "mainstream" section brandywine didnt have potato leaves. All the brandywines in that section have the same leaves.

So based on the responses here it just looks like the RL version is a Red Brandywine and they just say "Brandywine" so it can sell well based on the name.

So an additional question: I read that the red brandywine isnt related to the "real" brandywines at all. Do they taste similar at all or is it simply a matter of using the brandwine name for marketing purposes?

Looking forward to trying the Cowlick version next year if I can get seeds. Sounds really interesting.

[nctomatoman]

I find that Brandywine tastes very different than Red Brandywine, they have different sizes (different colors of course), and different internal structures - as well as different disease tolerances and different performance characteristics.

Brandywine has clear skin (so it is a crimson or pink tomato), runs 10-20 ounces, is quite oblate (flattened) in shape, a very well balanced flavor - quite intense, perhaps on the sweeter tasting side - the slabs of tomato show small seed areas irregularly spread throughout, and are small - more flesh, less gel.

Red Brandywine has yellow skin (so is a scarlet or red tomato), runs in the 5-8 ounce range, is slightly oblate of round, a well balanced flavor but milder and less intense, with the sweetness not as pronounced - the slabs of tomato show larger seed areas with more seeds - less flesh, more gel.

The enormous confusion around Brandywine is due to many factors - one of the very first superstar heirlooms, a great story (Ben Quisenberry), the use of "Brandywine" to name two popular tomatoes with different origins and no relation, confusion about red/pink in tomato color, many mis-listings early on in the SSE yearbook, and due to its popularity, a proliferation of selections and renamings (Glick, Cowlick, etc).

[Qweniden]

Thanks Nctomatoman. After hearing your description Im tempted to replace the red brandy with something else. I have enough beefsteaks anyway. I hate harming plants once I own them though.

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

a proliferation of selections and renamings (Glick, Cowlick, etc).

Im curious which ones are renamings? From what Ive read here is seems the different major strains have different characteristrics.

[creister]

Probably some small child innocently moving plants/labels in the nursery.

[dice]

Red Brandywine is a pretty good tomato, though. I grew one
last year. It was not especially productive, after getting off
to kind of a slow start, but I liked the flavor.

The names of both Red Brandywine and Brandywine are
probably based on a location (Brandywine Creek in southeast
Pennsylvania).

Some history of the different varieties with "Brandywine"
in the name:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/informat...randywine.html
(That page predates the introduction of Cowlick's, so you
will not see that one mentioned there.)